Germany Closes Book on World War I With Final Reparations Payment

Wow, that's interesting. I didn't know they resumed payment after WW2 - I always assumed that it was over when Hitler refused to continue paying.

My history teacher (in Germany) didn't mention anything about continued payments, either.

I don't know how to feel about this, but given that our own government created a huge debt after the 1974 oil crisis and again after the unification, I couldn't blame our debt on the reparation payments.

It's even more interesting: payments were officially suspended in 1953 until Germany would be reunited - which nobody expected to happen in the foreseeable future. The bonds were near worthless curiosities until things happened quite suddenly in 1989...

And just 4 years short of the centennial of the beginning of the war!

Personally I find this sort of stuff interesting but why is it on Hackers News?

Because you should ALWAYS keep an eye on the Germans

I think in the submission policies there is a point "if it would interest a geek, it is ok to post it" (not literal :) I think it is interesting, too!